at the end

Finals week is upon me and I am ... already done. My class only had final exams on Monday, so now I'm waiting for my brother to be finished. But let's go back a bit.

The week after Thanksgiving was mostly dominated by my grandmother's funeral. The whole experience was a powerful one for me as a family member and also as a deacon. I found the readings and prayers at Mass very powerful and was privileged to be able to say some of the prayers at the cemetery.

I had my last weekend in the parish (before Christmas). It was an opportunity for me to learn more about preaching. Because of the craziness of the week before, I didn't get a whole lot of time to get anything ready early. Going into Saturday, I still didn't have a general idea of what I wanted to talk about. I preached and it went fairly well, but by the last Mass I had significantly changed it. There is always room for improvement.

I'm sure most of you have already heard about it, but I was very excited by the approval of the Marian apparitions in Wisconsin. Seeing how God continues to work in extraordinary, even miraculous ways, always amazes me.

This weekend was my friend Josh's wedding. He and his now wife are extremely Catholic people. Hence, it was an extremely Catholic wedding. I was able to help with the rehearsal and be right in the middle of the action at the wedding. It was really encouraging for me, as someone who is ordained and celibate, to see that kind of love. My commitment to God and the Church isn't that different. We all have a part in the one love of God.

As a side-effect of being a little sick and talking over the loud music at the wedding reception, I lost my voice on Sunday. It's been bad since then. That didn't affect my Liturgical Music take-home exam or my in-class Theology of the Priesthood exam, but it definitely put a stop to my Lit. Music chanting final (singing The Exsultet, prayers, a preface and a Gospel). We postponed it, but after I didn't feel any better today, it's just going to have to happen in the spring semester.

Anyway, that means I am done for the semester. I was going to see Relient K and Deas Vail in Akron tonight ... but judged that resting and recuperating would be a better idea. Ah well.

I am looking forward to being home for Christmas vacation, enjoying the O Antiphons, deaconing at another friend's wedding, playing in the snow with my dog, seeing friends, reading, movies and the quiet beauty of Christmas.

Pax!